Third-level institutions are facing new levels of competition and an increased emphasis on quality assurance, because of a new drive by European governments to streamline higher education in all states, a conference has been told.
The chairman of the Higher Education Authority, Dr Don Thornhill, said the Bologna Declaration was a "wake-up call" to all those involved here in higher education.
The declaration, which has been signed by the Government and 28 others, is a common policy which seeks to find a united European approach to higher education. Under it, colleges will be asked to make their policies more compatible with those of fellow institutions in Europe.
At present there is a significant difference in the period it takes to get similar qualifications across Europe. This is likely to become more standardised under the declaration.
A new type of "education passport", which students would be able to present to colleges and employers throughout Europe, is also being considered. Known as a "diploma supplement", it would contain details of the student's course and qualifications.
Dr Thornhill said institutions would have to learn to compete in the global market-place. "The responses to change are increasingly set in an international, indeed global environment with competitors from the United States and other countries outside Europe as extremely important players.
"The creation of a European space for higher education through the Bologna process is in both part a response to the global dimensions of that challenge, but it is also part of the challenge because it is designed to ensure that European, including Irish institutions, can successfully complete in what will increasingly be a more demanding international environment".
One of those involved in the Bologna Declaration, Mr Guy Haug, told the conference Ireland would face stiff competition from Europe. In the new era of European higher education, hundreds of European colleges were offering their courses in English, which was a major challenge to institutions in the Republic and Britain.
He said quality assurance was a major part of the Bologna process and colleges needed to accept that. Regardless of overall European policy, increasingly colleges were evaluating themselves and publishing this information. This was "positive" and would boost colleges in the community.
Dr Art Cosgrove, the president of UCD, said the Bologna Declaration set out "ambitious, perhaps over-ambitious" goals. "In some areas it is attempting to achieve at a European level what is not yet possible at a national level."
He welcomed the idea of a "diploma supplement" and said Ireland as an recipient rather than an exporter of people needed an "effective recognition process". "We need to ensure that our own degrees are readable in a European context."